Timeline of Events
Specific years and specific measures of time are present in The Strange Case of Starship Iris, which makes it possible to construct a timeline of the history in this universe. The dates used are assumed to be Earth-years and Earth-months, despite the fact that other alien races live on other planets which orbit different stars, and thus likely measure time differently. The timeline of events is presented below, followed by the sources used to calculate the dates. Timeline Calculations of Dates Inconsistent Facts There are two dates/times given in the series that cannot be reconciled. First, in Ep. 1: Violet Liu, Kay/Arkady says "I finally got the courage to talk to that cool-looking girl from Intro Bio. Just, you know, eleven years and ten days too late." Violet states earlier in the episode that she graduated Harmony in '85, which implies she started in '81, when she took Intro Bio. However, the official website for Starship Iris states that the story takes place 2 years after the end of the Human-Dwarnian war that ended in '89, which puts it at '91. This would mean Kay is not 11 years too late, but only 10. It is possible that Violet spent 5 years on her undergraduate degree and instead started in 2180, which would have meant she took Intro Bio as a sophomore, and would also imply that she kept the same haircut for freshman and sophomore years (Vignette 1: Airtime describes Violet's haircut in her freshman ID photo, which seems similar to what Kay started to describe in Episode 1). This, however, does not reconcile the line in Vignette 1 that describes the photo: "There’s a picture in Liu’s file but it’s dated literally ten years ago. It’s almost certainly a freshman ID photo; she’s got the kind of haircut that seems designed to piss off respectable upper middle-class parents ..." Violet's freshman year cannot be both "11 years 10 days ago" and "literally 10 years ago" (assuming we take the meaning of the word "literally"... um, literally). Another in-universe explanation would be that Kay/Arkady, in reality having only an 8th grade education, is really terrible at doing arithmetic, especially on the fly, and messed up by saying "11 years". The second inconsistency is that Vignette 1: Airtime gives Violet's date of birth as 2063, but this would make Violet over 100 years old. This is most likely a typo (her actual birth year being 2163), or bureaucratic incompetence on the part of the IGR agents who prepared Violet's personnel file, because it seems more probable that Violet began college at age 18 rather than 118. (Or at age 17, if you subscribe to the "Violet spent 5 years in undergrad and started at Harmony in 2180" theory above.) Kay/Arkady's comment about "11 years, 10 days" and Violet's birth year of 2063 are both disregarded as data when doing the remainder of the timeline calculations. Calculations for Specific Events 2190: Violet Liu lives and works as a paramedic out by O-11 The story takes place in 2191. The human/Dwarnian war ended in 2189, and Violet also finished college (her Master's at Everton) in 2189. In Episode 3: In The Deep, we have: VIOLET: The year after college, I worked as a paramedic, out by O-11. Rough area. I met a lot of young mothers. A lot of very young mothers. It was -- I know we need to repopulate after the war, I mean, as a civilization, it's our duty to try to get back to even -- half of where we were. It seems clear that Violet's paramedic work was after the end of the war, which means "the year after college" did not refer to time between undergrad and grad school, but rather after she finished grad school. "The year" may also be ambiguous, because in Episode 2: Checkpoint Osiris, we have: VIOLET: It wasn't something you talked about, but that's why the route in that region goes straight from O-9 to O-11. I lived near O-11 for a few years, people whispered about it there a little. Since Everton is presumably a prestigious college, it seems somewhat unlikely that it would be located near O-11 (a "rough area"), so the "few years" Violet lived there were probably not while she worked toward her Master's. She may have lived and worked there from mid-'89 post-graduation until early '91, when her mission aboard the Iris ''began (though this would leave little time for her to begin her employment at Strauss & Marquez, which is where she works as a research assistant at the time of the ''Iris mission). Early 2189: Krejjh deserts the military, war ends, Krejjh meets Brian, Ryedell Station collapses At the end of Episode 2: Checkpoint Osiris, it is given by Agent Park that Ryedell Station collapsed in early 2189. Brian and Krejjh have also known each other for 2 years, as given in Episode 3: In The Deep ("Krejjh and I have known each other for two years." --Brian), also putting their meeting date at some time in 2189. In Episode 5: The Carmen Gambit, Krejjh explains a bit more about where, when, and how they met Brian: KREJJH: --anyway, so there I am, on Ryedell Station for the first time, and I know about six words of Earth English ... And there's humans on all sides, pushing and yelling and selling things, and I'm thinking, 'Yikes, Krejjh, you have got to hire a translator,' and that's when I hear this human voice shout-- BRIAN: Hang on, we're being hailed. KREJJH: That's not what you--oh. This exchange makes it clear that Krejjh and Brian met while on Ryedell station. Since the station collapsed in early '89, Krejjh and Brian must have met even earlier that year. Krejjh also deserted 6 days before the end of the war, as Eejjhgreb makes clear in Episode 4: Phone Home: EEJJHGREB: Krejjh, you deserted six days before the end of the war. The last battle had already been fought, the treaty was practically a formality. and also EEJJHGREB: You may be cozy with these humans now, but you left the military six days before the end of the war. You waited until after the Battle of Nreech-shlegga. You didn't have any problem killing them. You just didn't want to lose. KREJJH: You know where I was, when news broke about the battle? I was on leave, at the outer edge of the Neutral Zone. It was that or go back to base and I just wanted some decent food. Krejjh also says they met Brian after deserting: KREJJH: You know, if we really wanna get into the weeds on this one, I met him after I deserted, so it's not -- I didn't throw everything away for a human, as much as I threw everything away with a human. From all of this, the order of events in early 2189 appears to be: Krejjh deserts the military, Krejjh meets Brian OR Dwarnian war ends (which came first is not clear), and finally Ryedell Station collapses. Also, since Krejjh states that they met Brian on Ryedell Station, and earlier in Episode 4: Phone Home Brian states that he met Krejjh while doing field work in Neuzo (the Neutral Zone), we can infer that Ryedell Station is, indeed, located in the Neutral Zone. Brian's Educational History Events in Brian's past require a little more guesswork as to the exact years they took place. We can start with Brian's description of the end of his academic career in Episode 4: Phone Home: BRIAN: But then, with the war and the coup -- funding was tight, the departments were all fighting -- my whole program sorta fell apart. This follows Brian saying he has "like, half a Ph.D. from Brightwell". The coup occurred in 2180, and the big assumption we make below is that, around the time of "the purge" in 2181, Brian's department fell apart. It is not clear what year the human/Dwarnian war actually started, so this could be off by several years, and it is possible Brian's career in academia ended any time between 2180 at the beginning of the coup to 2187, when he was working on Ryedell Station during the summer instead of doing research. The below assumes 2181 as the year his formal education ended, and that "like, half a Ph.D." takes 3 years to obtain. The information about Brian's educational background comes from his conversation with Violet at the beginning of Episode 4: Phone Home: BRIAN: Yeah I, uh, I actually went Harmony College for like 95% of my freshman year. That's how we got the idea in the first place, for Arkady to pose as Kay. VIOLET: You transferred right before finals? Must've been stressful. BRIAN: Mm, probably. VIOLET: "Probably"? BRIAN: I mean, it was the same week I came out to my friends and family as trans, so. At that point, stress-wise, you're kinda grading everything on a curve? ... BRIAN: ... Plus, Wexler had way more support for trans kids. VIOLET: Sorry, when I asked you guys for a brief medical history, I did read what everyone wrote. You mentioned the year you came out and started transitioning, I could've put that together. BRIAN: Eh, doing the math on that wouldn't've helped you. I, uh, started college at sixteen. VIOLET: Brian, are you a genius? BRIAN: Everybody's a genius at something. VIOLET: Yeah, but. You went to Wexler? BRIAN: For the rest of undergrad. Uh, I've also got, like, half a Ph.D. from Brightwell. Assuming he continued to grad school immediately after finishing undergrad, it means Brian graduated from Wexler also in 2178. If his credits from his first year at Harmony all transferred, he likely finished undergrad in 3 years at Wexler, meaning he transferred schools and came out as trans in 2175. This means he started at Harmony in 2174, and since he started college at age 16, Brian Jeeter was born in 2158. If the estimate of his educational career ending in 2181 is accurate, that means Brian is 33 at the beginning of the show. At the other end of the spectrum of possibilities, if Brian's Ph.D. studies ended in early 2187, he could be as young as 27, making him even a year younger than Violet. Arkady's Age In Episode 7: Root Systems, Arkady establishes her age in terms of her time on Cresswin Landing: VIOLET: I looked it up, and Cresswin Landing stopped taking new inmates in ‘78. You would’ve been what, fifteen? ARKADY: Fourteen. I was fourteen. Dates of Events on the Rumor The dates of specific events on the Rumor can be calculated from a key line in Episode 4: Phone Home: BRIAN: Oh no, is it June 12th? KREJJH: Yep. It is later explained that the Dwarnian holiday Ferin ("kinda like Dwarnian Hanukkah?") falls on June 12 (at least this year. It is difficult to imagine that the Dwarnian home world, which presumably orbits a different star, at a different distance, and with a different speed, would use the Gregorian calendar). Krejjh also states in this episode that they are nearing Jemison sooner than anticipated: KREJJH: We are currently less than twenty four earth-hours from our dropoff point in good ol' Jemison System. A little creative flying has put us ahead of schedule, despite those challenging conditions we had back there. Junior Agent McCabe confirms at the beginning of Episode 4: Phone Home that three days have passed since Episode 3: JUNIOR AGENT: As we discussed in our most recent briefing, time is of the essence. Thus, this and all future reports will only concern the audio deemed relevant to our goals. The roughly three days of footage following transmission three are available in the archive, filed as transmission four, should anyone wish to review them. In the previous episode, Episode 3: In The Deep, Sana tells Brian to get some sleep while they fly: SANA: On the way to Jemison. We've got what, five days? Brian, get some rest and tomorrow once we're both done with all our work, I will help you go through everything. While Sana expected five days to pass between Episode 3 and arrival at their destination in the Jemison system, Krejjh's flying after three days puts them less than 24 hours out from their destination. This indicates that Episode 5: The Carmen Gambit takes place on June 13, 2191 and the prior episode, Episode 3, takes place on June 9, 2191. Incidentally, Episode 3 picks up immediately where Episode 2: Checkpoint Osiris, left off, indicating that episodes 2 and 3 both occur on June 9th. At the beginning of Episode 2: Checkpoint Osiris, Arkady states that Violet was in the cryo chamber for six days while the Iris's autopilot navigated to the Rumor: ARKADY: You were a human popsicle for six days. Do you want a blanket? Therefore, Episode 1: Violet Liu takes place on June 3, 2191. In Episode 2: Checkpoint Osiris, Brian mentions his message from Alvy Connors: BRIAN: He sent me this very weird transmission, two weeks ago -- Since Episodes 2 and 3 take place June 9, Alvy's message was sent on May 26. In Episode 3: In The Deep, we find out: SANA: ... Krejjh has flown with us for a year and a half -- and since Episode 3 takes place in early June, Krejjh (and presumably Brian along with them) joined the crew in late 2189 or early 2190. In Episode 6: Parallel, Agent Park mentions how much time has passed: AGENT: With the Rumor still in transit, we have taken the past week to regroup. Since Episode 5 takes place on June 13, Episode 6 takes place around June 20. In Episode 3: In The Deep, Krejjh gives a time estimate for the trip between Jemison and Rosalind. Since Rosalind is in the same system as Hafizah and the Rumor's fuel troubles don't impede their diverted course, it seems reasonable to extrapolate that time estimate to their new journey. KREJJH: Depends how hard we burn. Two weeks? Since Episode 5 takes place on June 13, the Rumor likely contacts Other Violet and Thasia around June 27. In Episode 9: Plan B, Agent McCabe and Junior Agent Goodman note how much time has passed between their updates. Hence, 2 weeks and 2.5 days have passed between the crew of the Rumor contacting Other Violet and Thasia, and the events of Episode 10. Historical Events The initial encounter between Dwarnians and the Vree Chel Noke occurs around ~1191 C.E. (The year in the Dwarnian calendaring system is unknown.) KREJJH: About a thousand years ago, Dwarnians were visited by another civilization, from very far away. We call them the Vree Chel Noke. It is assumed that Krejjh is using Earth-years when they say this, not Dwarnian years. The extinction of the Vree-Chel-Noke species occurs around ~1291 C.E. KREJJH: Oh, no, Captain Tripathi, they're all dead. They vanished about a century after they showed up. Nobody knows why. Again, it is assumed that Krejjh is using the definition of "century" as 100 Earth-years. Events of Unknown Date Some events are mentioned as having occurred, but their precise dates cannot be known, or even bookended into a range. Cresswin Landing Uprising Sana Tripathi was one of the major instigators in the mechanics' union uprising on Cresswin Landing, also the site of the largest jail in the galaxy where Arkady was born. This takes place at least two years before 2191, as evidenced by BRIAN: Yeah, we did a quick check when we heard about the heightened security. Captain, the name you went by during the uprising-- SANA: I haven't used it in years. Arkady's Stint as an IGR Guard Almost certainly during the reign of the IGR (after 2180) but before the end of the war (2189) and not overlapping with her time on Cresswin Landing. Loss of Contact with Crixton Col They were out of touch for fifty years, but which fifty are uncertain. Presumably contact was re-established before 2174, as Brian did a report on the colony in grade 10. The Saga of the House of Zravshen is composed The precise date is unknown, but Brian comments on the original text, stating: BRIAN: Or that when Effrella says "all of them", the Commander is using a form of "all" so emphatically inclusive that it died out a thousand years ago because it was all but useless in everyday conversation. Therefore, unless Brian is rounding numbers a great deal, the text was probably written over a thousand years ago (pre-1191 C.E., Earth-years).